How many reinventions can the classic BLT sandwich undergo? This version, while not your typical rendition, certainly packs a punch in the department of deliciousness.  My new favorite thing is blind gelato tastings; it’s amazing the flavors people think they’re eating, and when you break down and tell them the actual taste, the look on their faces tends to be photo-worthy.   With the BLT redux I did everything I could to make it obvious what we were eating.  The hardest part was the bread.  I finally settled upon shortbread cookies cut into squares and dipped in chocolate around the edges so as to resemble crust.  The color of each flavor turned out remarkably akin to their natural-state counterparts, yes, the frozen BLT is something to behold. 

The inspiration for the frozen BLT is threefold.  I just finished curing and smoking my first-ever batch of homemade bacon, thanks to Michael Ruhlman.  When I think of him, I think of his BLT challenge, something I did not participate in mere months ago as I had still not come around to eating pork products at the time.  I’ve always viewed pork as the final frontier, having gone from a complete vegetarian to one who eats meat occasionally in the last few years.  Only recently did I get to the point where I included pork in the acceptable category, and when I embrace something, I like to do so wholeheartedly. 

I twittered about my homemade bacon, soliciting recommendations on the highest and best use for it, and the mastermind behind the beautiful blog Vegetable Matter suggested bacon gelato.  Leave it to a vegetarian to come up with a great use for meat!  One thing led to another and I soon found myself poring over David Lebovitz’ Perfect Scoop- the bible of frozen desserts.  He inspired me to go the maple bacon route, however I deviated quite a bit from his recipe, most notably using maple sugar as my sweetener which is soooo delightful I’m tempted to use it in all gelato hereto forth. 

My jumbled mind kept ruminating on all these thoughts and like a slot machine spinning its three wheels for a perfect jackpot, the BLT idea pinged to the forefront.  Initially I planned to make all three flavors into gelato, but I started pondering the quandary of the lettuce, and eventually decided because of the high water content, it would have to be a sorbet instead.  Since I went down that path, I started considering the weight of all my ingredients, and I think you’ll agree with me in considering bacon more appropriate for ice cream than gelato.  It is such a rich, deep flavor first off, so the creaminess of ice cream should hold up to it better.  It is also incredibly American, in that regard ice cream is apropos also.  The tomato has a gentleness that gelato is perfect for, and while cream might overwhelm it and bring it into the tomato soup realm, just water a la sorbet would be a touch too light for my sandwich style dessert. 

The hardest part for me is keeping my mouth shut during dinner when all I want to do is bust out dessert straightaway and gets everyone’s honest take on the wild new concoction of the week.  When the time finally came to serve it up, Jonas and I snuck away into the kitchen and plated away like mad elves.  I quickly brought out dessert, trying to have everyone taste at the same time so that no one could unduly influence another’s opinions with preconceptions.  The bacon was pretty easy to guess; I had cut my candied bacon strips into small chunks, but not so small that they were unrecognizable.  The tomato and lettuce proved completely unrecognizable.  People thought grass, pea, bean, even mint (!) for the lettuce, which I found highly interesting. 

I suggested that my guests start thinking about the plate as a whole, asking what the shortbread cookies resembled, urging them to go in the right direction.  It was not until I outright gave the “sandwich” clue that someone finally guessed the infamous BLT.  I personally was a little nonplussed with the lettuce flavor, but once it was revealed, everyone was shocked by how much they liked it given what it was.  I’m going to leave you with the recipe for the real standout of the evening, the bacon ice cream.  I mean, how wrong can it be to combine two of the greatest things on earth into one, right? Enjoy.

Bacon Maple Ice Cream a la Awesome

For the bacon

• 5 strips of thick cut maple (or sorghum in our case) bacon
• 2-3 tbsp maple sugar

For the ice cream custard:

• 3 tbsp butter
• 2/3 c maple sugar
• 1.5 c whole milk (preferably raw)
• 1.5 c heavy cream (add cream to milk and stir to combine)
• 5 duck egg yolks (or 6 if using chicken eggs)
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp bourbon such as Maker’s Mark

1. To candy the bacon, preheat the oven to 400F (200C).
2. Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or aluminum foil, shiny side down.
3. Sprinkle maple sugar evenly over each strip of bacon.
4. Bake for 12-16 minutes, turning once halfway through baking to encourage even sugar distribution.  Set on a wire rack to cool.
5. Once crisp and cool, chop into bacon bits.
6. To make the ice cream custard, melt the butter in a heavy, medium-size saucepan. Stir in the maple sugar and 2/3 of the milk/cream mixture. Pour the remaining milk/cream into a bowl set in an ice bath and set a mesh strainer over the top.
7. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm sugar mixture to them, whisking the yolks constantly as you pour. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
8. Cook over low to moderate heat, constantly stirring and scraping the bottom with a heatproof spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.
9. Strain the custard into the milk/cream, stirring over the ice bath, until cool. Add vanilla and bourbon.
10. Refrigerate the mixture. Once thoroughly chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions or hand churn using an immersion blender between three freezes over the course of 4 hours, then freeze completely.

Add the bacon bits during the last moment of churning, or stir them in when you remove the ice cream from the machine.